Your challenge in the project portion of this course is to design a new product and to produce a prototype version of it. The goal of this exercise is to learn principles and methods of product development in a realistic context. Most product development professionals work under tremendous time pressure and do not have an opportunity to reflect on the development process. In this course, the project stress level will be low enough that there will be time to experiment and learn. Project ideas come from the students in the class and from opportunities presented by industrial sponsors. Guidelines for reasonable projects are given below. The project proposal process is explained in the Project Schedule section of this syllabus.

Project Teams

In the second week of the course, we will form project teams on the basis of expressed student preferences (see the Project Schedule for details). Teams will consist of about seven students. Once you are assigned to a project team, we expect you to stay in the course for the entire term.

Project Materials and Expenses

Unfortunately, there are no U of I funds to cover students' out-of-pocket expenses related to the course projects. It is expected that there will be some out of pocket expenses for the class project to be allocated between the team members.  However, these expenses are not to exceed $100 per student.  Students are encouraged to find corporate sponsors for their projects to defray the cost of these expenses.

Guidelines for Projects (PDF)
Some Project Examples from Previous Classes (PDF)
Schedule (PDF)

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